Holy cow! Everyone is talking about Heidenheim

Talks between politicians from the neighboring counties Dillingen and Heidenheim there have been quite a few in recent decades. Mostly it was the district administrators who invited to a mutual exchange of views. Should the Dillinger District Administrator Markus Müller and his colleague Peter Polta from the neighboring district of Baden Württemberg meet in the near future, it will certainly also be about football spoken. Ever since 1. FC Heidenheim was promoted to the Bundesliga, everyone is talking about the town on the Brenz with a population of 50,000. Even nationwide.

For District Administrator Polta, FC Heidenheim is the “outstanding sporting lighthouse” in the region, which also includes the villages and communities in the Bachtal. No wonder that is why Syrgensteins Mayor Miriam Steiner was happy like a snow queen after the thriller in the long-distance duel on the 34th and last matchday between Heidenheim and Hamburger SV. She only saw the final minutes of FCH’s 3-2 victory in Regensburg on the display of her cell phone, as she was on the court at the same time as SV Altenberg’s tennis club championships. Steiner and the other political leaders within VG Syrgenstein were already certain before the last match day that Heidenheim would pack the promotion. They had posters with the inscription “Frank Schmidt, we are proud of you and your team!” attached to the information boards in the individual locations. One of the information boards is in brook hail, the hometown of the successful trainer from Heidenheim. In addition, the blue and red flag of FC Heidenheim was hoisted on the maypole in front of the Bachtal Hall in Syrgenstein. “It’s impossible to overlook who our football heart beats for,” smiles Steiner.

The mayoress is already looking forward to the first home game of the 57th first division team and hopes that she has time and can get hold of a ticket. With a capacity of only 15,000 spectators in the Voith Arena, it will be difficult for many fans when playing against, for example Bayern Munich, Borussia DortmundRB Leipzig or Eintracht Frankfurt to get tickets.

Should the climbers from the Ostalb establish themselves in the top tier of German football, the infrastructure would of course have to be adapted. Thomas Schreitt, who works full-time as sales manager at FC Heidenheim, knows that too. “Everyone in the club knows that our stadium is too small for the first league in the long run,” says the 34-year-old, who lives in Dillingen and is a volunteer head of the soccer department at the newly promoted district league SSV Glött. According to Schreitt, how a possible stadium expansion can be approached must be carefully considered between the club and the city. We are already exchanging information on this.

Heidenheim also celebrates in Mallorca

Schreitt flew from Stuttgart to Mallorca on a plane to follow the team on Wednesday. The promotion to the Bundesliga is celebrated extensively on the Balearic island. After all, ice is the biggest success in the club’s history. On Whit Monday, the promotion heroes were still present at the big fan party in the Voith Arena. Florian Eising from Gottmannshofen also went there with a few friends to meet his longtime friend and former teammate Stefan Schimmer.

Both have once at TSV Wertingen started playing football together in the F youth. Eising and Schimmer played together in the TSV youth teams for a total of eight years, and later also for FC Gundelfingen for a while. Eising remembers that Stefan even saw a yellow card as a youth player. “I think he complained at the time,” laughs the 28-year-old. That he, Eising, “only” in the district league plays and his longtime friend in the Bundesliga in the future, that makes him anything but envious. On the contrary: “I’m proud of what Stefan has achieved,” he emphasizes with all his heart. The fact that Stefan Schimmer recently asked his buddy Florian if he could imagine being his best man at his wedding shows how well the two friends have known each other from their early childhood days. “Of course I said ‘yes’ right away,” smiles former teammate Eising. The marriage is to take place in 2024 after the end of the upcoming Bundesliga season in Mallorca. Since this date is still a long way off, the employee at a large Munich insurance company is currently thinking more about how he can possibly get a season ticket for the upcoming season. “Demand will certainly be high,” estimates Eising. In the last second division season, 4,800 season tickets were sold.

Heidenheim fans Ralf Pertl and his son Justin from Landshausen bought two of them. “Of course we also want to be at every home game in league one,” says Papa Pertl, hoping that he’ll be able to win the season ticket sale, which starts on the Schlossberg adventure day on Sunday, June 18th. Incidentally, the 55-year-old lives only about 150 meters as the crow flies from FCH coach Frank Schmid, whom he often meets in the supermarket in Bachhagel while shopping. From time to time the two talk, of course they talk about football and FC Heidenheim. “Frank Schmidt always has an open ear and is very friendly to people,” reveals Ralf Pertl

No Heidenheim fan club in the Dillingen district yet

Is he worried that 1. FC Heidenheim could become a whipping boy in the first division and be relegated after just a year? FC Bayern and Borussia Dortmund will be relegated,” jokes the supporter from Landshausen, who would like to join an FCH fan club if one were founded in the Dillingen district. So far there are only twelve registered FCH fan clubs. FC Bayern Munich, for example, can point to the impressive number of 4513. Despite this huge difference, both clubs will play against each other next season. Heilig’s Blechle Heidenheim!